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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

GirlsNames Interview

Canada's GIRLSNAMES came to my attention not so much by accident, but by the enthusiastic efforts of their Bandcamp mailing list (more about that later). Since I'm a mark for both free downloads and off-the-wall grindcore, they were included in one of my (sort of) weekly Bandcamp Picks. Info about them is sparse ("We are just 3 people recording in a closet..." was about all I could find), so I fired off some questions to the band's Facebook page; someone who was either a band member or computer virus was kind enough to answer.

DoC: Please describe the music of GirlsNames using only the names of famous historical women.

Amanda Fucking Palmer, Gee V from Crassand Emily Brontë.

DoC: Who are the members of GirlsNames and what do they do?

Adam
does the music, and some of the artwork. Emily does some of the lyrics
and artwork while Shandra does some of the synthesizing and lyrics. Vocals by all 3 of us.DoC: What's the history of GirlsNames? When were you formed, and what were you doing before this?

Adam
started making these tiny thrash songs around November 2011 and before
he knew it, Emily and Shandra were both doing vocals. Prior to this we
did not exist.DoC: A lot of your song titles are girl's names. I see what you did there. But why?

Mainly because it was an interesting concept, and it made titling songs really fun and weird.

DoC: GirlsNames is incredibly prolific, with (as of this interview) 18 releases on your Bandcamp
page since June of last year. What is your writing process like? How
long does it take you to complete a release?

We are always at least a few months ahead of schedule. A song can take anywhere from one day to 2 weeks to complete.
As far as releases go they usually take a few weeks to get right (artwork, etc).DoC: You wrote a song about Agoraphobic Nosebleed's Jay Randall, asking to
be released on his label Grindcore Karaoke. What was his response to
your song?

We
picked songs we liked (9/10's) and a song we didn't like (98 Degrees' "Yesterday's Letter") because we thought it would be funny.

Year One by girlsNamesDoC: I got
10 e-mails from Bandcamp when Year One was released; a few weeks ago when I
was watching a video on your Facebook page, my computer crashed for the
first time ever. Are GirlsNames really "just 3 people recording in a
closet", or are you actually a sentient computer virus that makes music?

We
have releases set till mid 2014. Stay tuned, we have a lot of material
waiting in the wings. The split with the Cryptic Yeast is available for pre order from NOISEDAD TAPES as of right now. We also have a split with
BRADOX64 sometime in the nearish future.